Microsoft 365 is the default in the German Mittelstand — and at the same time the line item that draws the most sighs during license negotiations. Nextcloud is the most frequently named alternative: self-hosted, open source, operable in full GDPR compliance. But does switching actually pay off? The answer depends less on technology than on two sober questions: what do your employees actually use — and what does it cost you per year?
What companies actually use in Microsoft 365
The assessments we run keep showing the same pattern: companies pay for the full bundle and use a fraction of it.
| Function | Typical usage | Nextcloud equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| File storage & sharing | heavy | Nextcloud Files — on par |
| Office documents | heavy | Collabora / ONLYOFFICE — sufficient for 90% of cases |
| Email & calendar | heavy | Nextcloud Groupware or a dedicated mail server |
| Video calls | medium | Nextcloud Talk — solid, below Teams level |
| Team chat | medium | Nextcloud Talk / Matrix |
| Power BI, Power Automate | rare, single departments | Metabase, n8n — as separate systems |
| Excel with macros, complex pivots | a few power users | remains a Microsoft strength |
The pattern matters: the heavily used functions are exactly the ones Nextcloud covers well. The functions where Microsoft is clearly ahead usually concern a handful of specialists — and those can keep individual licenses.
The cost calculation: two examples
A company with 50 employees
Microsoft 365 Business Standard currently runs at about €12.50 per user per month — €7,500 per year. A Nextcloud instance for 50 users runs comfortably on a server costing €30–60 per month at an EU hoster, i.e. €360–720 per year. Add a one-time setup and migration project (typically €10,000–18,000 at a fixed price) and occasional updates.
Break-even: about two years. After that the company saves roughly €6,500 annually — and owns its data.
A company with 150 employees
At 150 users, the Microsoft bill is €22,500 per year (Business Standard) up to €50,000+ (E3/E5 mix). The Nextcloud infrastructure barely grows with it: a larger server or a small cluster at €100–300 per month. The migration is more involved (more data, more integrations, often SSO via Keycloak), but it remains a one-time project.
Break-even: under 18 months. From year three onward, the company saves a five-figure amount annually.
What honestly speaks against switching
A serious comparison names the other side too:
- Deep Excel dependency. If controlling and sales work with macro-heavy Excel models, Collabora won't replace that. Solution: a hybrid model — Nextcloud for everyone, individual Microsoft licenses for the power users.
- Teams as a phone system. If you run Teams Phone with real phone numbers, you need a separate telephony solution — that is a project of its own.
- Nobody feels responsible. Self-hosted means updates, backups and monitoring have to be organized. With a clean handover and documentation this is very manageable — but someone has to own it. Without an internal owner (or a lean maintenance agreement), the best installation becomes legacy.
The underrated factor: data sovereignty as a sales argument
For companies handling sensitive customer data — healthcare, legal, finance, public-sector contracts — the switch is often not a cost question at all. Tenders increasingly demand demonstrable data sovereignty; "it's stored at Microsoft" is no longer an acceptable answer. A documented, self-hosted collaboration platform becomes a competitive advantage that pays off directly in won contracts.
How a switch realistically works
A four-stage approach has proven itself:
- Assessment — which Microsoft functions are actually used, and by whom? (1–2 weeks)
- Pilot group — Nextcloud in parallel for one department, real work instead of a demo. (2–4 weeks)
- Migration in waves — files first, then calendars/contacts, then office work step by step. Microsoft keeps running in parallel until the last wave is done.
- Handover — documentation, monitoring, backup tests, training for the internal owner. Only then are Microsoft licenses cancelled.
The most common mistake is skipping step 1 and basing the decision on feature catalogs instead of actual usage.
Conclusion: calculate instead of believing
For most mid-sized companies with 30–200 employees, a switch to Nextcloud pays for itself within 18–24 months — provided the migration is cut into priorities and operations are handed over cleanly. For companies with deep Microsoft integration (Dynamics, Power Platform, Teams Phone), a hybrid model is usually the more honest path.
Which case applies to you is something an assessment shows faster than any debate of principle. That is exactly what our Sovereignty Check delivers: an inventory of your actual usage, a cost calculation for your company size and a clear recommendation — switch, go hybrid, or stay. Fixed price, results in one to two weeks.